Officer held in plot to abduct and cook women

New York Times

Published 10:47 pm, Thursday, October 25, 2012

NEW YORK — The police officer referred to the woman as Victim-1, recording details including her date of birth, height, weight and bra size. He made note of certain materials, like chloroform and rope.

In one of the most disturbing arrests involving a police officer, FBI agents took Valle into custody Wednesday, after they uncovered several of his alleged plots to kidnap women, including one whom he threatened to cook and eat.

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“I was thinking of tying her body onto some kind of apparatus,” he wrote to a co-conspirator in one electronic communication intercepted by law enforcement authorities. “Cook her over a low heat, keep her alive as long as possible.”

When the colleague asked how big the officer's oven was, Valle replied, “Big enough to fit one of these girls if I folded their legs.”

The criminal complaint suggests that Valle, who worked in Manhattan and lives in Queens, never followed through on any of the acts he is accused of discussing.

Valle, who is married, was charged with federal kidnapping conspiracy.

“The allegations in the complaint really need no description from us,” Mary Galligan, the FBI's acting assistant director, said in a statement. “They speak for themselves. It would be an understatement merely to say Valle's own words and actions were shocking.”

The evidence consists largely of emails and instant messages in which he was “discussing plans to kidnap, rape, torture, kill, cook and eat body parts of a number of women,” according to the complaint, which describes two separate episodes in which Valle discussed abducting women. In each case it appears that the women knew the officer vaguely. And in at least one case, the officer gained access to the National Crime Information Center to get information about a third woman.

In an episode in February, Valle sent an online message to an unnamed person in which he offered to kidnap a woman on the person's behalf for a price: “$5,000 and she is all yours,” the officer wrote, according to the complaint.

“Just so that you know, she may be knocked out when I get her to you,” Valle wrote, according to the criminal complaint. “I don't know how long the solvent I am using will last but I have to knock her out to get her out of her apartment safely.”

Valle appeared to be under the impression that the person he was communicating with intended to rape the woman, according to the criminal complaint.

“She will be alive,” he wrote. “It's a short drive to you. I think I would rather not get involved in the rape. You paid for her. She is all yours and I don't want to be tempted the next time I abduct a girl.”

Valle also wrote that he would not budge on his $5,000 price: “Like I said this is very risky and will ruin my life if I am caught.”

While the complaint does not identify the woman in question, FBI agents later learned cellphone tracking devices indicated Valle had made or received phone calls on the block in Manhattan where the woman lived. When an FBI agent interviewed the woman, she said she did not know Valle well.

In a search of the officer's computer, federal investigators discovered “files pertaining to at least 100 women,” according to the complaint.

“The FBI has identified and interviewed 10 of these women, each of whom has confirmed to the FBI that Valle is known to her,” the complaint said.

In the search, federal agents also discovered a document Valle had created that appeared to be a “blueprint” for “abducting and cooking” the woman he referred to as Victim-1, according to the complaint, which redacts the name of the victim.

On July 19, Valle sent an instant message to the co-conspirator, indicating he was meeting with the intended victim three days later, according to the complaint.

The victim, who was interviewed in October by the FBI, said she had met the officer that day “at a restaurant for lunch,” according to the complaint.